


Past, Present, Future

by heartsdesire456



Category: Captain America (Movies), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Fluff, M/M, Marriage Proposal, Post-Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-11
Updated: 2015-08-11
Packaged: 2018-04-14 05:56:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,482
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4553292
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/heartsdesire456/pseuds/heartsdesire456
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <i>Nobody knew why Bucky pestered Pepper until she agreed that they could do an ‘Avengers Outing’ but Steve figured Bucky just wanted the people to see that he was, in fact, a person again. He’d been cleared of all criminal charges and officially labeled a victim of kidnapping and brainwashing, among various other horrible things, but a lot of the public still saw him as a terrorist. Steve knew Bucky hated that, almost more than anything that happened to him, because he’d always tried to be a good man. </i>
</p><p> </p><p>  <i>So when Bucky finally talked Pepper into the Avengers booking a private trip to the Empire State Building observation deck, everybody agreed, since they all knew how much he’d been struggling to feel like Bucky Barnes, not a monster.</i></p>
            </blockquote>





	Past, Present, Future

**Author's Note:**

> I got all these ideas for Stucky fics when I went to New York last month. Everywhere I went it was all "Oh look, stucky headcanon" and my friend revealed this is her life (she lives there, I went to visit her) and I'm FINALLY getting around to actually writing fics I said I'd write.
> 
> Also I totally stole a line from her for this fic. She'll know it when she reads it, lmao.

Nobody knew why Bucky pestered Pepper until she agreed that they could do an ‘Avengers Outing’ and bring along a photographer to make it a press ‘human interest’ story, but Steve figured Bucky just wanted the people to see that he was, in fact, a person again. He’d been cleared of all criminal charges and officially labeled a victim of kidnapping and brainwashing, among various other horrible things, but a lot of the public still saw him as a terrorist. Steve knew Bucky hated that, almost more than anything that happened to him, because he’d always tried to be a good man. 

So when Bucky finally talked Pepper into the Avengers booking a private trip to the Empire State Building observation deck, everybody agreed, since they all knew how much he’d been struggling to feel like Bucky Barnes, not a monster.

Pepper had the observation deck closed for the evening and the writer-slash-photographer met them at the doors of the Empire State Building. “So,” the older gentleman asked as they headed for the revolving doors. “Why the Empire State Building?” he asked curiously.

Bucky shrugged. “Something Steve and I remember from the old days,” he said. “I’ve never been here, though,” he commented, and there was a round of hums and agreements from the group that revealed none of them had.

“Wow, really?” Steve asked, looking around at the others as they walked through the lobby, but he didn’t get any replies because the others, most openly Clint and Tony, were oohing and ahhhing over the lobby. The gold and silver and the giant piece of art on the far wall _was_ a bit distracting, he had to admit. 

They were greeted by a manager, wearing the same doorman outfit all the other employees wore, who shook hands with Pepper. “Thank you so much for your patronage, Miss Potts. We’re delighted to have you all here tonight,” she said, looking both proud, nervous, and a little star-struck. “We’ve spoken to Mr. Walker already,” she said, gesturing to the photographer. “There are certain spots we’ve set up lights for photos. He told us he wanted it to appear candid, so we hope we can manage that for you without interrupting your visit.”

“Oh that’s just fine,” Pepper said, glancing back at the others, most notably Tony, with a warning look. “We’re all going to behave, aren’t we?”

“Well in that case, I’ll be giving you the tour, and we’ll start with this lobby,” she said, gesturing to the large mural on the far wall. “In 2009, the Landmarks Preservation Commission had the interior of the building remodeled to match the original 1930s design.” Most of them started to tune her out after that, talking amongst themselves.

Thor nodded, looking impressed, as he looked around the lobby. “This is very impressive. We have many golden halls much like this on Asgard. These machine designs, they’re very beautiful. I love the way everything shines.”

Steve smiled, looking around. “Well, back then, this style was really popular in architecture. There were buildings going up everywhere that were very art deco. Whenever I made it into The City, I loved walking past shiny doorways,” he admitted. 

Once their tour guide moved on, they took the escalator up to the second floor. When they got to the maze of red velvet ropes marking off where there would be lines, Clint whistled. “Jesus, this many people wanna come see a big building?” he asked incredulously. As they passed by the ticket booths, he glanced at the ticket window and nearly stumbled as he walked. “Holy shit, people pay _thirty-seven dollars_ to go visit the big building?!” Clint amended.

Steve snorted. “You should visit Coney Island sometime. It’s nine dollars to ride the Cyclone.”

Bucky scoffed. “C’mon, that’s nine dollars to ride a piece of Brooklyn history.” As soon as he saw the smirk that crossed Steve’s face, he gave a longsuffering sigh even before Steve’s mouth opened.

“But Bucky, you get to ride a piece of Brooklyn history every night for free,” he said in an innocent tone with a decidedly filthy grin, and Tony and Clint burst into immature snickers while Natasha turned around and gave them an unimpressed glare from where she and Bruce were walking behind Pepper and the tour guide.

Bucky sighed, shaking his head. “I don’t know why the hell I like you, Rogers,” he said flatly.

Clint snickered. “Probably cause you get to ride a piece of Brooklyn history whenever you want to,” he muttered, making Tony go from snickering to busting a gut laughing loudly.

“And now you guys can all peruse our Sustainability Exhibit while Mr. Walters takes his pictures,” the tour guide said a bit louder, clearly aware that they weren’t listening to her.

After the second floor, they entered an elevator with doors so beautiful Steve planned to draw it as soon as they got home. In the blink of an eye, in an elevator even faster than the ones at Stark Tower, they arrived to the 80th floor. “And here we have our Dare to Dream exhibit, which goes through the history of the construction of the Empire State Building.”

When they walked out and started to walk among the old photos and supply manifests, Steve shook his head, looking at them. “You remember when Gregory Wallis got a job building this thing?” Steve asked Bucky.

Bucky hummed. “The guy that worked at the newsstand on your block?” he asked, and Steve nodded. “Did he really? I think that was before I knew you.”

Steve shook his head. “Right after we became friends.” He looked at the display about the speed of the building and grinned. “I was eleven when they started work, twelve when they finished. How crazy is that?” he asked.

“What’s crazy is to imagine you and Bucky were here _before_ this place,” Natasha said, coming up between them. “You guys are old as shit,” she said bluntly.

Steve stuck out his tongue. “Physically, I’m the same age as you,” he accused and she flipped him off.

“You’re both children,” Tony commented and Clint gave him a disbelieving look.

“Bitch, please, you’re like the world’s oldest five year old, you react so badly to not getting your way,” he accused and Bruce tried to disguise his laugh as a cough but failed.

Tony gave him a betrayed look and Bruce shrugged apologetically. “Sorry, Tony, but it’s sorta true.”

“Yeah, well, you’re a pushover,” Tony countered, and Bruce rolled his eyes.

“Yeah, I know that, how else do you think you convince me to help you push the big red button so often?” he asked.

Bucky grinned. “So you’re his Steve, Tony?” he asked, and Bruce gave them both an alarmed look.

“Without the sex, maybe,” he said, glancing at Tony uncomfortably.

Tony blew him a kiss and winked. “You know you want me, Baby.”

“Ew,” Clint said, shoving past them. “I’m going to go follow Pepper before this gets too high of a rating for my innocent eyes.”

“HA! Innocent my ass!” Bucky called after him, looping his arm through Steve’s as he tugged him into continuing on through the exhibit.

After they had finished taking photos and looking at the exhibits, they got into another elevator that took them right up to the 86th floor observation deck. When they got out, Steve was once again taken aback by how beautiful the architecture and design was in the building. The ceiling decorations were absolutely stunning.

They took a few photos at the windows looking out towards the outdoor deck before they were released to go outside. As Steve walked towards the grate surrounding the deck and looked out at the amazing lights the view afforded them, he found himself momentarily unable to even think.

It was breathtaking. 

Everybody was oddly quiet for a bit before, from the other end of the line of people all standing and looking out to the east, Clint’s soft, “I totally get why people pay thirty-seven dollars for this,” broke the quiet spell and made them all laugh.

After that it was people going back and forth, looking out at the sights and trying to name what they saw, and Tony and Bruce making scientific calculations about throwing stuff off the building, and Thor pointing out buildings he’d landed on the top of during the Battle of Manhattan. Clint started a discussion with Tony about where exactly an arrow would land if he fired it from his exact spot, Natasha looked out as far as she could and started making comments about whether Steve would survive THAT fall, and most alarmingly, Thor and Tony started goading Bruce into going Hulk and climbing the spire to reenact King Kong (something Pepper interrupted with a loud and stern “No.” and silenced). 

Steve was unable to hold in a smile as he listened to his crazy friends and looked out at possibly the most beautiful view he’d ever seen. He felt a crazy swell of love for the city that he grew up in as he spotted landmarks silently. After a moment Bucky slid up beside him, bumping elbows to make Steve look at him and he was filled with an even crazier swell of love for the person who had always been the biggest part of why he loved that damn city. Steve smiled, leaning against Bucky’s shoulder. “This is actually pretty amazing,” he said softly.

Bucky slid his arm around Steve’s shoulders, letting Steve burrow into his side against the chill of the wind. “See? Told ya it’d be worth it.”

“Anything would’ve been worth it to see you happy, Buck,” Steve murmured against his shirt. He moved and curled his arms around Bucky, snuggling into his warmth. “Ya know, this is pretty romantic, too,” he added and Bucky turned to grin at him.

“Yeah, I guess it sorta is,” he said, holding Steve’s gaze before Steve rolled his eyes.

“That was a hint, Jerk,” he said, leaning in to kiss Bucky sweetly.

Bucky hummed against his lips, sighing when Steve grinned against his mouth. “I’ll never get sick of kissin’ you,” he murmured, making Steve smile bigger.

They walked around all sides, taking in the view for a while as the photographer took pictures, before their time was nearly up. Steve started to follow the others as they headed up the ramp, only to stop when Bucky held his hand, keeping him in place. “Uh, hey fellas? I’ve got something I, uh, sorta wanted to say. Well, do,” Bucky said, and Steve looked as all the others stopped on their way up the ramp and looked at them curiously. The photographer still had some lights set up aiming their way, so he raised his camera as well.

“Buck?” Steve asked, and Bucky turned to look at him, a nervous grin on his lips. 

“I sorta had an ulterior motive getting everybody up here,” he said, and Steve raised a confused eyebrow when Bucky faced him fully. Steve was even more confused when he heard Natasha gasp softly and the dull sound of her punching somebody – probably Clint or Bruce – in the meaty part of their arm over and over for some reason. Bucky licked his lips nervously, blue eyes sparkling. “Steve.”

“Yeah Buck?” he asked and Bucky smiled so widely his eyes crinkled at the corners.

“You were right about one thing earlier,” he started. “They started building this thing the spring of 1930. That same spring, I was coming out of the school about to go home and I saw this tiny, scrawny, pissed off little blonde boy trying his best to rough up these two older boys cause they were pickin’ on a little girl’s patched up dress,” he said, and Steve still had no idea what was going on, even though it was clearly from the whispers and shushes that at least the majority of the others did. Bucky shook his head with a fond grin. “They busted your lip before I could run over and help you out, and when I pulled you up off the ground, instead of ‘thank you’ you had the gall to be pissed at me for interrupting your fight.”

Steve nodded with a small smile. “Yeah, I remember.”

Bucky wet his lips again and his smile grew more nervous. “It only took a year to build this building, but it took me less than that to realize that you and me? We were always gonna be best friends. I knew way before this building was finished that I was gonna spend the rest of my life following you into trouble.” He chuckled softly. “Might’ve took me longer than that to realize the way I liked your pretty blue eyes wasn’t exactly normal, but I loved you already since before this building was finished.” Steve could see how wet Bucky’s eyes were getting and his stomach flip-flopped with understanding the moment Bucky opened his mouth to continue. “I’m gonna do something right now that I’ve wanted to do since you were sixteen years old and I realized how crazy in love with you I was, long before I’d ever even kissed you.” 

Steve let out a shaky laugh, voice hitching as Bucky moved to kneel on one knee. “Bucky,” he choked out, lump growing in his throat as he watched Bucky tug something out of his pocket.

Bucky opened the box to reveal a silver band with a line of blue around the middle. “Steve Rogers, I’ve loved you through grief, through hunger, through war, through death, and through brainwashing.” His voice cracked as a tear slipped out of the crinkled corner of his eye. “And I plan on loving you for the rest of my crazy ass, super soldier life.” He beamed as he saw Steve’s own tears finally escape his eyelashes. “Will you marry me, Punk?”

Steve gave up trying to hold it together and let out a rather embarrassing sob. “Oh my God, yes, you jerk!” he cried and Bucky was up in a shot, throwing his arms around Steve’s neck, meeting him in a hard, wet kiss. Steve’s arms were so tight around Bucky’s waist a normal person would be squished, but Bucky just squeezed him right back.

They finally stopped kissing and pressed their foreheads together, laughing through happy tears. They heard their friends all cheering and a camera shutter going crazy as Bucky pulled Steve’s left hand from the side of his face and slid the ring onto his finger. Bucky finished the job by kissing his hand and Steve let out a wet laugh as he pulled him into a hug again.

“I love you so much, Bucky,” he whispered, clinging to his brand new _fiancé_.

Bucky laughed hoarsely and nodded, kissing his temple. “I’m gonna keep loving you forever and ever, Stevie. I promise.”

**Author's Note:**

> The Empire State Building was probably my favorite thing in all of New York. It was more beautiful than I could've ever imagined on the inside and the view is absolutely breathtaking. Like, I can't even describe the feeling you get up there. It's SO worth it if you ever go to New York City. Seriously. If you do nothing else, go to the Empire State Building.


End file.
